But there is an element of style in the retweet. Style in tweeting is like jeans – there’s a fit for everyone.

1. Old School RT

This is traditionally done by clicking reply on a tweet, copying the text of the original tweet, and pasting after the user’s name. Then you put “RT” in the front of the tweet and click send.

Hootsuite and Tweetdeck (as well as their rival third party apps) have buttons that make this much easier. In Hootsuite, however, you have to change the settings for this retweet style to be activated.

On Twitter mobile this is called “Quote Tweet.” I still don’t get why they don’t have that option on the web version, but I digress.

2. Modified Tweet (MT)

If the original tweet is very much longer than 120 characters, you may have to edit the tweet to get under the 140 character limit. If you do this, then put MT instead of RT and use an ellipis (…) where the text is cut off.

3. Comment Tweet

This retweet has a comment in front to continue the conversation. This is my preferred style.

Note: Some people put the comment at the end of the tweet with “//” or “<<” before their addition, but I find this style confusing.

4. Rewrite Tweet

This is a hybrid between the comment and the hat tip. Especially if the tweet has a link, I may use a quote or something in an article that I like better than the original tweet’s text but still want to give credit. When I do this, I usually add the website or author’s Twitter handle, if known. I may even add an appropriate hashtag.

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